1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a housing system and a housing method for a passenger seat provided in a vehicle cabin.
2. Description of the Related Art
In Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-262424 (hereinafter, referred to as “JP-A-2004-262424”), a base of the center seat in the second row is described to be detachable from a floor portion of the vehicle body (i.e., a vehicle body floor). To house the center seat, the base of the center seat is detached from the floor portion. Then, the seating cushion of the center seat is detached from the base of the center seat, and the seatback is folded to a surface (i.e., upper surface) of the base of the center seat. Then, each of the seating cushion and the base of the center seat with the seatback folded over is housed within a recess portion formed under the vehicle body floor. The recess portion is located in front of the back-row seats.
In Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-243876 (hereinafter, “JP-A-2004-243876”), the base of the center seat in the second row is also described to be detachable from the floor portion of the vehicle body, which is similar to JP-A-2004-262424. However, the seating cushion of the center seat described in JP-A-2004-243876, is not detached from the base of the center seat. Alternatively, the seatback is folded over to a surface (i.e., upper surface) of the seating cushion instead of the base of the center seat. Then, the base of the center seat is housed within a recess portion formed under the vehicle body floor. The recess portion in JP-A-2004-243876 is also located in front of the back-row seats.
In both JP-A-2004-262424 and JP-A-2004-243876, the center seat detached from the floor portion is folded over, and then is housed within the recess portion formed recess portion formed under the vehicle body floor. Therefore, when the center seat is to be housed within the recess portion, it is necessary to house the center seat within the recess portion while the folded center seat is being supported over the recess portion. Besides, when the center seat is to be taken out from the recess portion, it is necessary to lift up the center seat from the recess portion.
Thus, the operations of housing the center seat into the recess portion and taking the center seat out of the recess portion is not easy to perform because an operator is required to carry the weight of the center seat. In particular, according to JP-A-2004-262424, when the center seat in the second row is to be housed, the seating cushion needs to be detached from the base of the center seat while the seating cushion needs to be fitted to the base of the center seat when the center seat is to be provided again at the back-row seats. Therefore, those operations may be further cumbersome.